On Afghanistan, Mrs. Clinton owes an apology to Americans on behalf of Democrats and Republicans

It would have been interesting to see Mrs. Clinton swagger across her office to take the phone and apologize to the Pakistanis for last year’s mistaken U.S. attack on their soldiers. For a woman usually so full of war-speak and arrogance it must have been hard for her to put on sack cloth and ashes. Even more, though, it would have been fascinating to watch the Pakistanis at the other end of the line as their tried not to howl with laughter as the Secretary of State of a once-great power cried uncle and said “we’re sorry” to a team of Third World poker players who knew they held the winning hand all along.

Well, the apology is out of the way and supplies will again begin to flow from Karachi, through Pakistani territory, to U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. As long as the resupply routes stay open, U.S. and NATO forces will be able to stay until 2014, the official date President Obama has set for our surrender to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. An orderly surrender to a far weaker enemy, I suppose, is always better than an unexpected surrender because your troops are out of bullets and bread.

But what about the American people? Where is their apology? For those who might ask what Mrs. Clinton has to apologize for to Americans, try the following on for size.

For the decision of Obama and Bush to delegate to Pakistan their constitutional responsibility to defend America and defeat its enemies. There is no constitutional provision for such a delegation, and no common sense in giving it to a country fully and openly opposed to our war aims in Afghanistan.

For the shameful acquiescence of Generals McChrystal and Petreaus and their predecessors for not resigning and then speaking to the American public about the madness of marooning a U.S.-NATO field army in Afghanistan by allowing resupply to remain patently vulnerable to Pakistani manipulation and the Russians’ desire to bleed the United States by allowing the transit of inadequate driblets of supplies through the Former Soviet Union.

For the policies of Obama and Bush — such as curtailing night operations — that left our soldiers and Marines crippled by rules-of-engagement that made them more targets than killers. [Ditto for Iraq.]

For the cowardice of both parties in bowing to ignorant Western public opinion formed by the wishes of a now-dead, half-witted British princess who opposed the use of land mines. No insurgency supplied and reinforced at will across a long foreign border — as is the case in Afghanistan — can begin to be defeated without closing that border tight with military forces and minefields.

For both parties’ insane obsession with building a secular democracy — complete with a parliament and Western-style rights for women — in a deeply Islamic Afghanistan. Obama, Biden, Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Powell, Lieberman, Graham, and McCain are all personally responsible for getting U.S. and NATO military personnel killed, wounded, and de-limbed for such demented goals as allowing Afghans to vote and Mrs. Mohammad to hold a parliamentary seat.

For the bipartisan decision not to “win” in Afghanistan and to never mention the word “victory.” This piece of genius will permit the Taliban‘s return to power and the continued basing of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. And the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan — when added to our earlier departure-without-victory in Iraq — is likely to galvanize the rising generation of young Muslim males in a pro-jihad direction, just as the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan in 1989 galvanized bin Laden’s generation.

For two administrations’ willingness to extend what should have been a 12-to-15-month punitive expedition into a 13-year lost war that wasted every American life and dollar that was spent in its pursuit and has left U.S. interests far more vulnerable to Islamist militants than they were in 2001.

For Obama’s decision to keep U.S. and British soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan after he decided to concede America’s defeat there, a decision that has allowed the U.S.-and-British trained Afghan army and police personnel to shoot their trainers, as happened to the British last week and to our soldiers this past weekend.

For Democratic and Republican election-year deceitfulness in claiming that the war against al-Qaeda and its allies is being won, when a quick look at the data and any map of the world will show that Islamist forces are far more numerous, well-armed — thanks to the Arab Spring, and much more geographically dispersed in 2012 than they were in 2001.

For the continuing bipartisan political, academic, and media lie that holds the United States is being attacked by Islamist fighters because of its freedom, elections, and gender equality. All leaders in these fields know the Islamists are waging war on America because of the impact of Washington’s interventionist foreign policy in the Muslim world. The politicians, journalists, and academics prefer, however, not to rock the boat that brings them benefits from domestic and foreign lobbies and so push the lie that will ultimately cause the United States to bleed to death in terms of lives, money, and prestige.

The foregoing seems to me more than enough to justify Mrs. Clinton strutting onto our television screens to offer Americans an apology on behalf of both parties and her own resignation. I suspect such an event is not in the offing, however, at least as long as Mrs. Clinton believes she has a chance to get more U.S. military personnel killed in an unnecessary war with Syria.

In thinking about all of this an anecdote came to mind that is appropriate at Independence Day. It is said that George S. Patton, when a young officer fighting Mexican bandits before the Great War, offered an Independence Day toast that amounted to: “God bless the United States of America, and god damn all of her enemies.” I suspect that the young Patton never envisioned a July 4th like the one just past, one on which many of America’s most dangerous enemies are to be found among elected federal officials.

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Author: Michael F. Scheuer

Michael F. Scheuer worked at the CIA as an intelligence officer for 22 years. He was the first chief of its Osama bin Laden unit, and helped create its rendition program, which he ran for 40 months. He is an American blogger, historian, foreign policy critic, and political analyst.
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“My policy has been and will continue to be … to be on friendly terms with, but independent of, all nations on earth. To share in the broils of none. To supply their wants, and be carriers for them all; being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so; and that nothing short of self-respect, and that justice which is essential to a national character, ought to involve us in.”
— George Washington